Toe Up to 10K - A Global ebook nominee

Also available in a physical format. Toe Up to 10K on Amazon

My SCI Not in Vain

A while ago, I wrote out some thoughts stating that I feel my spinal cord injury has not been in vain.  I ended up expanding on that thought, and the result ended up being a guest post on some blogs.  The piece below has been modified a bit from the one that has been posted previously.

A Tragedy Not in Vain

In June 2012, I was afflicted with meningitis. As a result, my spinal cord was damaged.  The most visible consequence was my legs inability to move, thus, my inability to walk.  The literature I read implied that movement would be regained between 2 – 12 weeks of the affliction, usually 4 – 6 weeks. I hadn’t moved my legs in 7 weeks.  The literature also indicated that the longer it took for any initial movement to return, the less significant the recovery would be.

Admittedly, I’ve had a remarkable recovery.  I walk at almost the speed I did before the injury, and unless you observed me closely, you probably couldn’t tell that I was ever paralyzed.  The adjustments I now make to other areas that were affected are minor.  But I would not want to relive the experiences of the last two years.

Beginning with my time in the ICU, I lapsed into semi-consciousness, I couldn’t breathe independently, I couldn’t swallow, speak, move my legs, nor wiggle my toes.  I had no control over my bladder or bowels.  There was a chance I would be significantly brain damaged, and also the chance that I would not walk again.   Actually, there was a chance that none of the functions I lost would return.

One by one, those functions did return – maybe not to the level of efficiency before the spinal cord injury, but well enough, if not almost completely.

I wrote a book about my recovery, Toe Up to 10K: A Journey of Recovery from Spinal Cord Injury.  Initially, I wanted to write a book because I found very little information about the recovery process from spinal cord injury.  However, as I recovered more and more, I also wanted to document my recovery to give people an idea of what recovering from a spinal cord injury is like.

 

Many times the prognosis for recovery will be bleak.  But no one can predict what the outcome will be for any given individual.  This is why even if one is told he/she will not walk again, it is important, especially in the beginning, to try – and to not give up easily. 

I won’t be stoic and say that my spinal cord injury was not a tragedy.  It was.  But it also gives me the opportunity to share my story, and if I could inspire one person into not giving up, then my injury has been in vain. 

New Facebook Page

I started a Facebook Page that shares the same name as this blog and my book.

I wanted a page for my book, but also wanted to share SCI stories on Facebook.

Toe Up to 10K page on Facebook

Get to Know Me a Little Bit more - Author Interview

In this blog, I mainly write about things that deal with spinal cord injury, directly or indirectly, and you'd have to go over to my profile to get a summary of me.

I did an interview, on a bookblog, which was posted yesterday, about me and my book on spinal cord recovery.

I thought I'd share it on this blog. I think it's a nice combination of getting to know a little bit more about me outside of the spinal cord injury, while getting a little more insight about the book, Toe Up...

Here is the link to the interview site, called  Beth's Book Reviews.

Toe Up to 10K: A Journey of Recovery from Spinal Cord Injury - eBook on Sale Now

My book chronicling my recovery from spinal cord injury is available on Amazon, now. And gradually will be available to more and more ebook retailers in the coming weeks.

Here is the trailer for the book. I used the online software at Stupeflix.com.  A big Thank You to @Ellisshuman for introducing me to this site.

Toe Up to 10K


eBook available now on Amazon, and will make it into other eBook retailers one by one in the coming weeks.

Here is the link to the book's page on Amazon:  Toe Up to 10K at Amazon

Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day.  Wishing everybody in the States a wonderful "end of summer" weekend while celebrating America's workforce.

Reminder that the eBook version of Toe Up to 10K is scheduled to be released on September 5, 2014.

What will happen is, on Tuesday, I will authorize the distributor to release the ebook to eretailers, and it will take approximately 2 - 4 days to appear on Amazon, and then 1 - 4 weeks on other eBookstore sites. So, technically, the book can go on sale as early as September 4, or it might take up to September 8 for it to first appear.

To the best of my ability, I will try and set it up so that you can order a copy from the distributor through my website.

As Monday is a holiday, the next post will probably not be until September 2 or 3.

  

Toe Up to 10K sale date 9 Days Away

The ebook version of Toe Up to 10K is ready to be released, but I am waiting until after Labor day to release it.  So, the date for release is September 5, maybe it will be out on some ebook retailers on September 4.  Once the distributor releases it to the e-retailers, it is up to the e-retailers to post the book to their sites, and that can take 48-72 hours or more.

The physical version of the book, the proof is ready. There is an issue I need to get an answer to, and depending on the answer, it might also be out on September 5, or perhaps a couple of weeks later.

However, the good news is the production of the books is progressing and it looks like it will be on sale very soon.

Evolution of Reasoning Behind Toe Up to 10K

When I was in the hospital, I wanted to have a baseline to compare my recovery.  I wanted to know wanted to know when my legs would start to move, when my bladder and bowels would recover, when I would be strong enough to stand, etc.

Except for that I would probably spend a year in a wheelchair and that I would be walking "well enough: in two years (and this was stated when it was thought I had Guillain-Barre syndrome).  And no answer to when and how the bladder/bowel would recover.

Finding info on regaining the ability to walk wasn't so bad.  There were some stories of people were able to walk again, but there were other stories of people who were still not able to so after some years, and some who took several years to regain enough strength to stand.  However, just finding stories of walking recovery were difficult to find.

As far as bowel and bladder recovery, I found even less info.

So, initially, I wanted to share my chronology.  I know everybody recovers at a different pace, and the amount of recovery differs among individuals, and the issues differ depending on where the injury(ies) took place, but if I contributed my story, there would be at least a record of how, how long, and how much I recovered from my issues. 

But as I wrote the book, and as I experienced a rather rapid pace towards "normal enough," my theme seemed to change from providing my story to which others can compare to, to providing an inspirational and motivational piece for someone who finds him/herself in a similar situation - and reach out to those who have issues other than physical, and perhaps use the same strategies I did (finding inspiration, movitation and working towards goals) to overcome his/her obstacles - with the one advantage I did not have, which is the trial and error I went through to find the right mind-set and action-set.

So, what I think I ended up, with Toe Up to 10K, is a book, superficially chronicles the timeline and progress I made during my recovery, but is really about how I drew inspiration and motivated myself to recover as best as I could.  I realize that I've had a remarkable recovery, and I know not all of it is due to own hard work - that my body responded to some intangibles, but I don't think I would have recovered as well as I have without the work I put into recovery - and ultimately, I just wanted to share my story, for I believe each story of a successful builds upon other people's stories and provides inspiration for those who found themselves in the same situation I found myself in two years ago.